Inax Vietnam: Demonstrating Quality Japanese Trademark in Vietnam

After graduating from Phu Tho Technology University (Saigon) in the Pottery Industry and teaching at Dong Nai Technical Workers’ School for one year, in 1974 Mr Nguyen was awarded a one year Colombo fellowship (now JICA) to study pottery in Japan. This brought happiness to Nguyen, who was born in a poor village, doing farm work year round. It not only gave him the experience of producing Japanese pottery in Nagoya, but also exposure to the Japanese working style and attitude toward labour. After finishing his year of study in Japan, he looked forward to using his experience to contribute to Vietnam's pottery industry.

However, he was not recognized as Vietnamese during Vietnam’s reunification in 1975. So, he resigned himself to ask JICA for another one year fellowship to study brick-making. He faced many difficulties while living in Japan, “I was not granted permanent residence. I always felt far from my community, as there were not many Vietnamese people in Japan at that time.” However, that created in him the motivation to try harder. In 1978, after numerous one year fellowships, JICA said they could not continue to grant him more fellowships and suggested he find work. So, Mr Nguyen had to return to Nagoya to meet his old teacher at university. He found a job researching and developing products in a company specializing in coloured enamel tiles and worked there until 1996 when Vietnam opened its market, allowing foreign enterprises to invest in Vietnam. He recognized that this was a good time to come back to Vietnam, “There are so many Japanese people with my ability, why don’t I come back home and share my experience, contributing to Vietnam,” he confided.

 

He found difficult to express his feelings, when setting foot on Vietnamese soil on Christmas 1996 after a long time far away. He recalled his sad feeling previously, when flights to Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore took him through his fatherland’s skies, but could not stop for a while. He was eager to put homesickness behind him. When he was in Japan, he had thought of developing organic pottery producing technology to benefit Vietnam. However, it was not a suitable time for him, or foreign corporations, to start a business. 

Then, on the occasion of Inax’s Deputy Manager General visiting Vietnam in February 1997, he was asked to open a representative office for Inax. This turning point led him from being a researcher to becoming a businessman who made Inax popular with the Vietnamese in only two years. He recalled, “Nobody knew Inax trademark at that time. So, it researched the market and established agents in most provinces to find suitable marketing strategies, so customers became familiar with high quality Japanese pottery.” He revealed his working guidelines at Inax, “Think of people, think of quality, think of service quality,” while continuously studying the market to launch a variety of new products and meeting the increasing consumer demand. “We work together with agents to support and give advice so that they can provide customers the best products. There is no better marketing than word of mouth. Though number of agents has not grown, however, more factories are interested in being part of our system,” he said. As a result, Inax has transformed itself from a completely new brand to become the leading pottery trademark, holding the dominant market share for many years with yearly turnover of VND300 billion.

 

When Inax has a fully sustainable position on the Vietnam market, he intends to return to his youthful passion. “Apart from handmade pottery, art pottery has its own soul conveyed by the artists. From available material, you can create many desirable things in many different forms. I love art pottery and will create my own business from this passion, devoting my time to Vietnam’s new industry,” he shared. Hearing his passion for the subject, there is no doubt of his future success.